March 21, 2003

Milking, for All Its Worth

By LAWRENCE BIEMILLER

Milking started at 4 a.m., after Kate Briggs had spent half an hour setting up the milking parlor and bringing the first cows up through the darkness from their big, open-sided sheds. Now dawn is illuminating the steep, rocky hills beyond the pastures, and birds are darting over the yard, and black-and-white Holsteins are crowding at the gates. Ms. Briggs has already milked more than 160 cows.

Fences and gates funnel each new group into position, shoulder to flank, so that eight pairs

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